for decades Ballard made his name with surrealistic, apocalyptic science fiction, supporting his widower's family, to culminate in the hypnotic 'Crash,' but perhaps never achieving true mainstream attention until 'Empire of the Sun,' a memoir about three years in Shanghai internment center under the Japanese burst onto the scene.

does this explain something about the years of a human life? or was it just a case of perfect timing, Japan beginning to assert itself economically and culturally after decades of relative silence from the international scene? in any case, Empire of the Sun, turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg, captures simultaneously the romance of pre-war Shanghai and the terrible cruelty of the Japanese empire as both it and the British Empire go through their last days.

today, surrounded by American children who grow up on their manga and cosplay conventions, the UK-US-Japan dynamic remains a key element of modern consciousness, even as India and China begin to write the history of the 21st century...